Shako Horse engagement

 Following on the heels of the Shiloh game we did a quick horse only game of Shako.

early in the battle

Time Lapse:

Been busy with Fire Department calls and upgrading my medical FR skills, not much in the way of games over the past few months.

Shiloh Battle - first attempt

 At long last I am able to find the time to post this account of the Shiloh Game that was played at the end of 2024.

The inevitable happened during the game and my pager for the volunteer fire department went off during the game and I had to leave ... however there were players for both sides so the battle continued while I went off to land an air ambulance.

yours truly to the left of the air ambulance landing
in the field behind our house

Finally an opportunity to play out at least some of the Shiloh battle presented itself.

My youngest son was home from University and we were going to get a game in with a friend of his and an extra.  These two had played out the Bull Run game that was run a year ago and they were keen to exercise skills gained in that game here.

table top set up with Union troops in bivouac

The game then commenced and I did the time-lapse again:

We were able to get into second turn when I was called away, then returned to the end of turn three, the Confederates realized they were not going to be able to push the Union off the board, nor even reach the other side of the table, the minor victory condition, at all since the Union guns had awoke in time to pound their positions and General Sherman's Division was grinding their formations mercilessly.

control board

confederates in action

a big die marker showing turn three

table overview at the end

The main tale of this run was an amazing run of luck for the Union, as more than 1/2 of all units needing to be 'activated' by die rolls in the first two turns, did so immediately (with only one brigade of Sherman's command being 'slow' - yet still activating!) and then when needing to fire, the one battery of Union artillery that activated fired, stopping the Confederate charge, and utterly decimating the brigade of Confederate troops!

By turn three, the Confederate commanders had had enough ... then we re-set for a fast Napoleonic Cavalry game! (next post coming soon)

the game crew - with the d10s on show!

SHILOH is ON!

 I have sourced a couple of players for a Shiloh game using the newly finished miniatures.

So I have hustled to also finish the tags set for the game.

I've included a few 'independent' units for
other game play

likewise with the Union forces set
some 'independent' units for other game play

Gonna be a fun Friday night, setting up and Saturday game action.

Hope that everyone has some last tabletop fun in 2024!

Little first responder gift set.

 We have the first responder xmas gathering in December, this time it was early and I still had not found anything for the exchange ...

I stumbled upon these three little close matches to our gear, then decided to special convert them for use as proxies for our vehicles.

the finished product

the starting point of the ambulance
(I had masked the windows before
I realized there were no starting pictures)

Chevrolet po-po

our "Rescue 22" is based on a
Ford F350 (big cab)
This was the closest equivalent in the same
sales display.

I got to work doing re-painting
and manufacturing the back end
for R22

the finishing touches went on
about 24 hours before they were
to be in the mix for the gift game

So far I haven't had to stop in the middle of any painting, nor during a tabletop games event to respond to the tones.

Have a great new year everyone!

15mm Gettysburg ACW forces started

 The grand army of the Republic has begun, this time with a big horseflesh run.

As in the past, with the horses, I have used the 'quick-paint' method, with inks in the feature.

freshly cast bare metal on the painting sticks

black brush on base coat

charcoal and blue undercoat

top 'wet-brush' layer

under color layer

ink layer (you can see the inks I used in the
top left of the image)

black manes & tails

beige manes and blazes

greys and musket barrels

yellow and red details

mounted and matte coated

on final bases

fully flocked

this represents the first half of the Union Cavalry on Day one at Gettysburg, I have the other in cleaning process now and expect to finish before the end of December.

Much was put on hold during my bride's convalescence from breaking her arm.  All is on the mend now and I hope to have time open to complete these before the new year when a first responder course will be taking all of my spare time.

Shako II - Solo scenario throwdown - October 2024 - Flavor of Maloyaroslavets

 Over a couple of days in October, I had opportunity to set up the table and leave it, so that I could run a game over a longer period of time without having to clear it all away.

I would have post the data about this game in November, however the day I was to start working on this my bride took a slip and fall and did much damage to her left elbow, after a day in emergency, then overnight and surgery the next day for 6+ hours, she was able to recover in hospital for a few days.
Then return home.

I have been her arms for a few weeks now and shall continue to have much time taken up with these ongoing support tasks.  Thankfully her recovery is progressing well.

With the delay explained, now onto the battle:

Scenario 2, from Scenarios for all ages, was a contested river fording situation.  It reminded me very much of Maloyaroslavets, from the retreat from Moscow situation the French faced in 1812.  This being the case I chose to make it a Russian defending the line, with French attackers.

Again as a solo game, I chose some cards to make the 'command decisions' of the two sides, the Russians came up the 4 of clubs and the French the 5 of clubs. Meaning that both sides were only going to have 'middling' plans with no real commitment to much at all.

My Eugene model had commanded cavalry
many times after the first Maloyaroslavets game
now out in a command stand again

an even older generation Russian command
figure was selected to take on the role of
Baron Sacken for this encounter

I used the ruined hovels for the 'built up areas'
that the game calls for

so ... the plans were terribly simple
I was hoping that the French could get a toe-hold into the
ground on the far side, enough so that the
large force of infantry could storm across
with their flank covered

Once again I used a time-lapse system to capture all the action, which turned out to be a good idea, since I could not fully recall all the actions taken from just the still photos.

Reviewing it all via the editing process, I recalled that the French column did get across the river, in force, yet were all 'damaged' and fighting uphill into supported artillery.  The damage may only have been a 'shaken' or 'disorder' yet it was enough to make the attacks just that little bit weaker ...

The coup de grace was the Russian Dragoon force riding down a French demi-brigade to a man, capturing their eagle and putting a total victory on the battle for the Russians!

Looking back I see it was last October 2023, when I managed to get in scenario 1, perhaps I'll be able to do scenario 3 in 2025?

Let me know if you enjoy this sort of content or if I could change it up some way more interesting.

No idea if I will get in another game before the new year, though I have some painting progress to report in the coming weeks, happy holiday season to everyone reading.

A 'throw-down' Napoleon's Battles match-up

 The aim was to get 8-12 players into action in a 15mm Napoleon's Battles tabletop battle.

The actual numbers of players to arrive would determine the troops on the table.

We ended up starting with 9

setting up troops

I was able to take on troops painted and prepared by Nate, and we got to be on the same side and actually work towards a goal together.  Something new, since we are often having to teach from opposing sides.

board laying out the troops available and
the ones selected and a time-track

We gathered at the University of Victoria on Nov 24, I had the added job to deliver special performance attire for my youngest son, who is now a student at UVic.

my youngest son did not take on any command when we were
arranging troops ... he did come in on turn 5

the whole French force (seen from the right flank)
Bavarian in the foreground
then French Heavy Cavalry
French Corps with Baden troops
French Corps with Wurttemberg troops

Russians on their left

Russians and Prussians in the center

Prussians on the right

it took a couple of turns to get out from the restricted
area that the French were forced to deploy from
though we managed to do three turns in 45 mins

combat was more of a 'hold back' as the French right and
center were taunting the Russians to come out into open ground

Then my son came back the the game room and decided to jump in - now there were 5 commands on each side.

table action became hot and heavy
-seen here-
Russio-Prussian forces moving during turn 5

turn 5 became pivotal as there were firefights and melees across the line

turn 6 was massive on the French left (where Nate and I were)

while over on the French right a stalemate had developed

the aftermath of a huge light cavalry strike
3 artillery batteries destroyed two formations
of Infantry routed along with the gun crews
the entire Prussian corps on the flank was either
routing or disordered

seen in the foreground here are the horses
of France, now disordered and damaged (though only
from slowing down to brutally saber and rout
the Prussians)
in the mid section are the location of the three batteries
that were destroyed in the charge

It was so nice to finally have a charge work for me.  The mixed corps are often a challenge to operate in the battlefield environment and I have been premature in my operations in the past.  Not so this time.

Patience worked and the wounded formations of troops were no match for the charging horsemen.

more of the players Russio-Prussian forces

view at the end, on the French left
a marginal French victory

view thru the center and French right
center was a marginal allied victory
far right was a draw

Russio-Prussians managed to also wreck three
French batteries and rout/disperse the Bavarian corps

The overall victory might go to the French, given that the French side still had three of the five unused re-roll markers and the Russian Pavlov grenadiers had been routed.

Great game everyone!